2017 12/18

Our speaker was Maria Molina, a PhD student at Central Michigan University in the department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and a former meteorologist for Fox News Network. Maria grew up in the Miami area and one of her first memories was of Hurricane Andrew, one of only three category five hurricanes to hit the United States.

Maria gave a general discussion on the climatology of Atlantic hurricanes including relationships between the state of the El Nino Southern Oscillation Index (ENSO) and Atlantic Ocean sea surface temperatures and how they both relate to hurricane formation in the Atlantic. It was also mentioned that there has been, at least so far, no clear relationship between Atlantic hurricanes and climate change.

The year 2017 was the seventh most active year in the Atlantic and the most active since 2005. Tropical systems with hurricane force winds were recorded on forty days. This was the first time three category four storms hit the US coast in the same year. 

In the Q and A session after her talk, William Marino brought up the interesting fact of the recent lack of severe weather in West Michigan. This trend began suddenly in 2009 and is still ongoing. There were no tornado watches anywhere in the state of Michigan this year and the number of warnings issued since 2009 has been down well over 50%.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 PM. The board is contacting several speakers for future meetings and we will let you know the details as soon as they are finalized.

Respectfully submitted

Craig James Woods

Secretary